Neither criminals of war, nor criminals of conscience

02-12-2006

My neighborhood may not be a cross-section of Middle-America, but I always like to think that it is; at least in a confirmatory way to test some thesis that I might be trying to present. And today happens to be one of those occasions.

Three and one-half years ago, the Stars and Stripes waved from almost half of the houses in my neighborhood; and you couldn’t miss all those “Support the Troops” signs hanging from window after window. But slowly, and unnoticeably, most flags and signs have disappeared. In contrast, this morning, on my customary walk, I saw two brand new signs that read: “Impeach!” Apparently, the sign-displayers felt there was no need to name names. And they couldn’t be more right.

Those Bush-haters, we all know what’s on their minds! First they want to get America’s “beloved president” impeached, after which they’ll be more than happy to consent to any requests from the International Criminal Court in The Hague; not just for Bush, but for Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, that Gonzales guy running the Justice Department… and, with little convincing, the entire cabal. But it just won’t happen; it’s all wishful thinking.

For the umpteenth time, folks: there will not be an attempt to impeach President Bush! Unlike his predecessor, he has been faithful to the First Lady, and has also maintained the required presidential decorum not just at the White House, but also at the Crawford Ranch; and even during those difficult moments when traveling overseas visiting those book-learned folks. OK, so he was caught taking piggy-bites on a roll when talking shop (Israel’s blitzkrieg of Lebanon) with Tony Blair during St. Petersburg’s G8 Summit; but heck, that’s nothing – not when compared to papa Bush’s Kodak moment… puking on Japanese PM Miyazawa Kiichi in that embarrassing January day back in 1992.

Why would any American want Bush impeached? Malapropisms and total aversion to compromise are no reason to gang up on him: not likeable, folksy-to-the-max Dubya. It’s not really his fault that he was put in charge to be the Decider, Pastor-In-Chief of all Christendom, and Commander-In-Chief of the world’s only military superpower.

Impeach the Emperor? How absurd! Impeachment for this “master of the fib” is really verboten, an unpopular thing in these United States, particularly since the high crimes and misdemeanors of which he’s being accused are publicly viewed as acts against rogue peoples and nations, terrorists, enemies all of this Holy American Empire.

How could anyone ever dream that these recently elected Democratic politicians would initiate impeachment proceedings against a member of the House of Bush… politicians that this exemplary political system breeds and nurtures! Bush will not be impeached, nor will he be censured. Neither will his tutors nor will his mentors, nor will anyone else in his administration regardless of how scrupulously criminal or inept. Americans don’t much care what the world might have to say. Perhaps they are criminals… but if they are, they happen to be “our” criminals, and that sanitizes each and every one of them. That is something you can just put in your pipe and smoke it.

These take charge leaders may be considered as criminals of war by a world lacking understanding of America’s oil-anointed mission, including many ungrateful Americans; but so long as military defeat and occupation of the homeland do not come about, they remain safe, never to be judged before domestic or foreign tribunals. They are free to roam the weaker parts of the globe, killing and pillaging to their stone-hearts’ content – as long as they do it under the banner of Corporative Borg-America… and the seal of approval of the Bilderberg Illuminati.

As a last resort, critics of America’s impune behavior may turn to that tribunal within, to the trial they hope might be taking place in the conscience of these American leaders. If America’s hegemony is such that precludes those leaders to be judged – pronounced as criminals of war and sentenced – the only source of consolation may rest in that they be judged and found guilty by their own conscience. That, however, will turn out to be nothing more than the moralists’ chimera, conscience being for them the last and only refuge. But these accused holocaust-builders, unlike their Nuremberg counterparts, will remain scot-free, neither as criminals of war nor as criminals of conscience.

For those of us in the planet who prefer not to join the brotherhood of moralists, whether religious or lay, the ensuing result is a state of mind that registers many levels of emotion ranging from uneasy resignation with the existing cruel reality, to utter despair. Somehow there are those amongst us who cannot be appeased with the mere prospect of a possible hell in the hereafter, not for those who have caused such hellish pain to an incredible high number of human beings in the here-now.

The moral to this horrid story we are now living in the Middle East, one likely to be repeated time and again, is that those who have ultimate power in the form of access to vast quantities of deliverable WMD (nuclear and/or bacteriological) are always to be considered the victors; yes, even in defeat. And judged they shall not be, by either their fellow men or their conscience.

Just two signs calling for impeachment in a walk that probably covered more than two-hundred houses! Results from the recent elections indicated that well over half of the voters in this nation are upset with the current inept and corrupt government; yet only one percent in my neighborhood seems to be angry at the alleged criminals who govern us, standing defiantly to neighbors who not long ago stood “patriotically” waving flags.

Have Americans been inoculated against political anger… rather, castrated?